Defensive Opportunity

George Ajaka

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George became Managing Partner of White & Partners investments across equity and debt in 2016. He has over 13 years of experience in sourcing and managing real estate investments. George joined White & Partners in 2007 following four years at Towers Watson and KPMG Actuaries. With an Actuarial background, George’s numeric skills allow him not only to develop sophisticated financial valuation and risk models, but assess property investments from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. George has extensive experience in property development, finance and deal structuring along with property disposal strategies across retail, residential, hotel/pubs and industrial sectors. George is a member of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and is responsible for the performance of White & Partners Investments.

Stephen Girdis

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Stephen has over 30 years experience in real estate asset management, financing, development, investment banking and chartered accounting, mainly at the Macquarie Group. He has held various senior positions including Executive Director of the Group, Global Head of Real Estate and Chairman of Real Estate, including serving as Chairman and Director of related ASX and SGX listed entities. During his leadership, global assets under management (including partnerships) grew tenfold to over $A30 billion. He was closely involved with the growth of Macquarie’s Asian real estate platforms, including joint ventures with Wanda Group, Munich Re, Pacific Star, Goodman Asia, and Pan Asian real estate private equity investment through MGPA and Schroders Asia property. Since retiring from Macquarie in 2012 he has been co-investing with and/or advising Australasian real estate companies.

James Hodgkinson

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James has deep real estate experience across all sectors having worked as a principal in the establishment and growth of the Macquarie Group’s Real Estate Investment Management business where he was an Executive Director and Business Head. Over his 16 years in this business James successfully led transactions in many aspects of the real estate value chain across multiple sectors in Australia, Asia and the United States.

Graeme Wilson

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Graeme has over 20 years experience in real estate financing, development, investment banking, advisory and funds management. Graeme was an Executive Director at Macquarie where he spent 16 years in the real estate sector. Graeme successfully lead a number of real estate transactions including equity joint ventures, mezzanine debt, senior debt, corporate advisory and funds management opportunities. Graeme has extensive hands on real estate experience and has worked across a number of geographies including Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, Hong Kong, Singapore and China.

Matthew Budden

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Matthew is a principal within White & Partners. He has 18 years of experience in Asian investment banking, the last seven as Deputy General Counsel of JP Morgan Hong Kong, the leading Asia-Pacific legal team in corporate derivatives, structured products and prime services with experience in coordinating industry discussions on key regulatory consultations. Prior to JP Morgan, Matthew spent five years with the Bank of China International (BOCI) group developing the Chinese capital markets, RMB internationalisation, pre-IPO financing and share placements. Matthew advised BOCI on HK government’s inaugural HKD20B sovereign bond and BOC’s USD11.5B global H-share offering. Matthew also worked for six years with the Mitsubishi – UFJ Group on capital markets transactions in Singapore, China, Korea and South East Asia, arranging sovereign loans, currency and interest rate swaps and debt restructurings.

David Mao

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Prior to joining White & Partners in 2016, David worked for Greenstone Partners (corporate finance) and Macquarie Capital (real estate investment banking). David has experience in financial valuation, deal structuring and due diligence. David is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia.

John Kowalewski

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As a qualified Property Valuer with over five years experience within the real estate sector, John’s expertise is in investment analysis and property acquisition. Having worked previously for Australia’s most awarded Buyer’s Agency as well as current involvement with Ray White Commercial NSW, John understands a broad range of property markets across various asset classes. Since joining White & Partners in 2014, John has been heavily involved with all acquisitions and provides up-to-the-minute market research support and feasibility analysis.